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You may have missed it last week with all the fuss about the government’s decision to walk away from the increase to the Medicare Levy to fund the NDIS, but the National Disability Insurance Agency finally broke its silence on the future direction of disability housing in the NDIS.

This weekend’s Good Weekend featured the story “Parenting an intellectually disabled child: life forever on duty” about Alex Browne a 22-year-old man with an intellectual disability. It showed that not much has changed when it comes to improving media representation of people with disabilities in this country. But listen up journos, it’s not okay to degrade people with disabilities and represent us as burdens, just because you think it makes a good story.

Up until now, for many of us living with disabilities or caring for someone with a disability, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been something that we have only advocated for and dreamt about. But on 1 July, the NDIS moved from trial phase to full rollout and for thousands of Australians, the advocacy will finally pay off and it will be time to turn those dreams into reality. Here is some advice on what you need to do to get NDIS ready.

The signing of bilateral agreements this week between the Commonwealth and Australia’s largest states, Victoria and New South Wales, was a historic moment for people with disabilities and our families and carers. Not only was it a demonstration of how politicians can work together to achieve something good, but it also means that for at least 200,000 Australians, we finally have certainty about our lives and our futures.

As final negotiations are occurring between the States and the Federal Government around the timing of the rollout of the NDIS, we are approaching a critical time for people with disabilities. It is concerning that a number of prominent voices have been calling for a delay to the full roll-out when they do not represent people with disabilities and may have vested interests.